Take Control of Your Email Inbox: Here’s How

Taking control of your email inbox helps you manage your time. Fewer messages to sift through frees up time to focus on other tasks.

Controlling your email inbox helps you stay organized. Knowing where specific information is located lets you quickly identify and act on it when needed.

Follow these guidelines to take control of your email inbox today.

Set Your Email Inbox Filters

Use inbox filters to categorize your emails automatically. Your emails might be sent to different folders, color-coded, or prioritized based on the sender. Then, you can scan for any messages you missed or need to respond to.

Minimize Your Promotional Email

Unsubscribe from the promotional email and newsletters you do not want to receive. Having fewer emails to sift through frees up time to respond to urgent messages.

Schedule Time to Check Your Email Inbox

Set aside blocks of time to go through your email. Decide whether you should respond to, archive, save for later, or delete each message. Following this process helps you focus and complete your task faster.

Keep Urgent Emails in Your Inbox

Emails that require immediate action should stay in your inbox. Your other emails should be placed in the appropriate folders or deleted. This process helps get your inbox as close as possible to empty.

Make Subfolders

Create subfolders to group crucial email chains. Examples include topics others may have questions about, support for your decisions, or reference materials for future business needs. Having subfolders lets you know where to look to reference information when needed.

Create an Action Pending Folder

Move emails that require action from someone else before you can respond to a folder labeled “Action Pending.” Then, these emails will not take up space in your inbox.

You can look at the emails you are waiting for a response to to remind you of which projects are pending. This process helps you find the necessary information without spending much time searching.

Track Your Follow-Up Emails

Consider moving your emails that require a follow-up response to a designated subfolder. Then, add to your calendar a reminder with the folder location and the date the follow-up is needed.

Develop Templates for Your Responses

Create responses to the emails you tend to reply to similarly. Reducing the need to provide tailored replies saves significant time when responding to emails.

Turn Off Your Email Notifications

Turning off your notifications reduces the desire to check your email inbox outside your designated times. Minimizing distractions helps you focus on the task you are engaged in.

Is It Time to Change Jobs?

When the time comes to change jobs, make HireCall part of your search. Use this link to our job board.